Generally, medical diagnostic imaging apparatuses for imaging a tissue or an organ inside a patient are classified to two types. One is a physical diagnostic apparatus, and the other is functional diagnostic apparatus. Examples of physical diagnostic apparatuses include an X-ray CT apparatus, an MRI apparatus, X-ray diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, for example. On the other hand, a nuclear medicine diagnostic apparatus, such as a SPECT apparatus is an example of the functional diagnostic apparatus.
In a hospital, the physical diagnostic apparatus is usually located in a separated room (inspecting room) separate from the functional diagnostic apparatus, and each apparatus independently obtains an image. However, Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-105641 discloses physical diagnostic apparatus located in a same room as the functional diagnostic. In this medical system, a patient can lie on a common bed for both imaging of the physical and functional diagnostic apparatus. Otherwise, using an additional bed, each diagnostic apparatus can be separately used at the same time. Such a medical system is shown in FIG. 1, for example.
The medical system shown in FIG. 1 has an MRI apparatus 100 as the physical diagnostic apparatus and a nuclear medicine apparatus 200 as the functional diagnostic apparatus. The MRI apparatus 100 has a gantry 101, a gradient magnetic field power supply 102 and a transceiver circuit 103. The nuclear medicine apparatus 200 has a gantry 201, a detection circuit 202 and a main control unit 203. The medical system has a common bed 300 which has a plate 301, a bed controller 302 and an imaging position controller 303, and has an additional bed 400 which has an additional plate 401 and an additional bed controller 402. Moreover, the medical system has a main computer 500 which controls whole an operation based on a SPECT program and an MRI program, and a monitor 600. In the conventional medical system, it is possible to perform each imaging separately by using the additional bed. And also it is possible to obtain a same area image since the MRI apparatus 100 detects position information of the plate and the nuclear medicine apparatus 200 adjusts a position of the plate based on the detected position information.
However, the conventional medical system has several problems. In the conventional medical system, the apparatuses are not isolated from each other. For this reason, when the imaging is performed by one apparatus, it is difficult to obtain the image by the other apparatus. Moreover, since the conventional medical system uses one common main computer, it is not convenient to obtain each image by each apparatus separately. As described above, in the conventional medical system, the same area image is obtained by the MRI apparatus and by the nuclear medicine apparatus. However, the conventional medical system does not disclose how to obtain the same area image, nor especially how to set the imaging area. Moreover, the conventional medical system can obtain the same area image when a patient keeps lying on the bed. However, once the patient gets off the bed, relative position between the bed and the patient changes. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain the same area image in the case where one image is obtained on one day and the other image is obtained on another day. Thus, the patient keeps waiting until both apparatuses are available, which can impose a burden on the patient and decrease efficiency of the system.